Lee Mai-ping (李美萍) came to Taiwan to study on Sept. 13, 2000, with the hope that, as a descendant of a former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) soldier stranded in the border region between Thailand and Myanmar, she would be granted Taiwanese residency.
“We had heard that we could obtain residency after living in Taiwan for five years. But I found out after arriving that the regulation had been scrapped a long time ago,” she told the Taipei Times by telephone.
But she did not give up the hope of securing Taiwanese residency after she completed her studies.
She began her campaign in June 2007, trying to persuade lawmakers to help her and other descendants of KMT troops in a similar plight in Taiwan.
Her two-year fight for residency made progress when the Legislative Yuan passed a special bill on Jan. 12 granting residency to Tibetan refugees and the descendants of former KMT soldiers who entered Taiwan between May 21, 1999, and Dec. 31 last year for studies or technical training with the permission of the Ministry of Education or the Overseas Compatriot Affairs Commission.
The bill benefited some 2,000 descendants.
“After being granted residency, I can apply for job permits and be covered by National Health Insurance,” she said.
Although she will receive her residency soon, Lee still believes that Taiwan should establish a mechanism for people to seek asylum.
“There are still a number of KMT troop descendants in the border area between Thailand and Myanmar,” she said. “They are all looking forward to finding their roots in Taiwan.”
An asylum bill has been stalled for several years.
Documents the legislature received from the Executive Yuan on Dec. 5, 2007, showed that the nation had taken in refugees on several occasions since 1975. Residency was granted to around 3,000 refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in 1975, another 6,000 refugees from Vietnam in 1976 and some 2,000 people from the Indochina Peninsula the same year.
In 2001, 140 Tibetans were granted residency under the former Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) administration before the current Immigration Act (入出國及移民法) took effect.
Around 800 descendants of former KMT troops who entered Taiwan with fake passports between May 20, 1999, and Dec. 26, 2007, were also granted one-year temporary Alien Residency Certificates (ARCs) after turning themselves in to officials from the Immigration Agency on July 15 and July 16 last year in Jhonghe (中和), Taipei County.
But these moves to protect refugees who previously lived in Taiwan without legal residency were special courtesies from the government; these people could not file for asylum status. Instead, they could only wait and hope the government would grand them residency one day.
Legislative records showed that a Cabinet-level human rights task force resolved in 2002 to push a draft asylum law. However, a draft was not submitted by the Cabinet to the Legislative Yuan until March 2007 — five years after the task force reached the resolution.
The bill, if passed, would allow any foreigner or person without nationality who fears returning to their native country because of ethnic, religious or political persecution to apply for asylum in Taiwan. Their spouses and children under the age of 20 would be allowed to seek asylum as well.
The bill would also require government representatives, experts and academics to conclude reviews of the applications within six months. The applicants should be granted temporary residency and enjoy basic living standards, legal consultation and medical care while their applications are pending review, the bill said, adding that the government would also be obliged to provide shelter for the applicants.
Those granted asylum would be able to apply for ARCs and permanent residency or naturalization, the bill said.
But the bill has been stalled since it passed the legislature’s preliminary review on March 2, 2007. The legislature has not held public hearings or conducted a substantial review of the bill.
Although the Legislative Yuan approved a resolution on Jan. 12 calling on the government to prioritize the bill in the spring legislative session, pundits saw slim chance of it clearing the legislative floor any time soon. The bill was not included in a priority list the Executive Yuan proposed on Feb. 18.
The priority list of some 50 bills did include bills related to human rights issues, such as ratification of the UN International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights and an amendment to the Assembly and Parade Act (集會遊行法).
Taiwan Association for Human Rights secretary-general Tsai Chi-hsun (蔡季勳) said limited progress had been made in terms of the legislation because politicians did not think they would benefit in elections from establishing an asylum system.
“Given the number of votes legislators can garner from [helping] refugees, very few lawmakers have true humanitarian concerns for refugees [in Taiwan],” Tsai said. “After all, refugees currently in Taiwan who do not hold citizenship from any other nation account for no more than 10,000 people.”
The delay may also have something to do with Taiwan’s exclusion from the UN and its geographical location, she said.
“Compared with the situation on the Indochina Peninsula, the refugee issue Taiwan faces is less urgent,” Tsai said.
Amnesty International Taiwan secretary-general Wang Hsing-chung (王興中) said all countries, including Taiwan, should share the responsibility of aiding refugees.
“But so far, the government has not really taken the issue seriously,” Wang said.
“The government only extended the special courtesies [granted over the past years] as a result of the climate of public opinion,” Tsai said. “An asylum law can at least serve as a basis for government agencies to begin reviews [of asylum applications].”
When asked whether it would be possible for the legislature to approve the bill in the next few months, Tsai was pessimistic, but said that human rights groups would continue to lobby members of the three caucuses in the legislature.
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